These 5 post serve as a visual supplement to the article forthcoming in Knight Letter, the magazine of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America, Volume III, Issue 14, No. 114, Spring 2025
Special books return to readers and
artists as if asking to be revisited. As Italo
Calvino said, a classic never finishes saying what it has to say (1) and like
Heraclitus’ river, we never read Alice the same way twice. Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland may be the most illustrated novel of
all time, yet some artists deserve special attention—the Alice re-illustrators. Somewhat
surprisingly, and of course depending on one’s definition of what it means to
“re-illustrate,” there are twenty-four of them (thus far)! They return to
Wonderland driven by evolving artistic vision, new techniques, or personal
transformation. Some answer editorial invitations, while others feel an inner
urge to reinterpret the story through shifting creative and life experiences.
What changes when an artist steps into Wonderland again?
John Tenniel, 1965 / 1990
In The Nursery “Alice” (1890), (Macmillan, 1890)John
Tenniel did not re-illustrate his images, but they were transformed through
the addition of color and a new editorial approach.(2)Twenty
illustrations were colored for the first time(3),
softening the original engravings and bringing more expressiveness to the
characters—most notably, the Queen of Hearts’ intensely flushed face. Alice
herself appeared brighter and more cheerful, with softened tones, rosy cheeks,
and a new outfit: a yellow dress with green accents, a large bow, and a hair
band. Beyond these visual modifications, Carroll integrated the illustrations
into the very act of reading, encouraging interaction with prompts like Look at the picture, and tell me what you see. This approach drew text and image closer together, making the
reader feel like a participant in Alice’s journey.
Barry Moser
A few illustrators revise select images rather than
re-illustrate entire books. Barry Moser, Ralph Steadman, and Mervyn
Peake all altered their illustrations in later editions, reflecting
stylistic or individual evolution. Others reshaped Alice through distinct artistic lenses—dreamlike, playful, surreal,
modernist, metamorphic, idiosyncratic, or playfully experimental. There are
many Russian artists who published second sets along these lines, but we don’t
have room to speak at length about them in this article; they include the
husband-and-wife team of Irina Yakimova and Igor Zuev,(4)Alexander
Koshkin,(5)Viktor Chizhikov,(6)Andrei
Martynov, (7)and the wonderful Maxim Mitrofanov, whose work and evolution is discussed
in great detail on Knight Letter.
Maxim Mitrofanov, 2009
Maxim Mitrofanov, 2019
Not all
artists return to Wonderland through direct illustration. Charles Blackman,
for instance, never illustrated the book per se. Instead, he immersed himself
in Wonderland through his deeply personal and symbolic paintings. Inspired by
his wife Barbara’s vision loss during pregnancy, he reimagined Alice as a
figure caught between estrangement and freedom. His Alice evolved beyond Carroll’s
text, becoming a symbol of imagination, transformation, and personal mythology.
Blackman expanded Wonderland into a realm of artistic exploration, where Alice drifts between personal
narrative and universal archetype.(8)
Charles Blackman
Comment: Reillustration, for
Blackman, was not just a return but a deepening—his Alice moves from
personal metaphor to universal mithology, shifting between estrangement and
self-discovery, between inner vision and the ever-unfolding possibilities of
Wonderland.
(1) Why Read the Classics?, Knopf Doubleday, 1999.
(2) Other changes have been documented fully by Brian Sibley (Jabberwocky
vol. 4 no. 4, 1975) and are also noted in Michael Hancher’s The Tenniel
Illustrations to the “Alice” Books.For example, in the trial scene, the emblem on the pikeman’s tunic
changed from clubs to hearts, and in the picture of the White Rabbit holding
his watch the time shown on the watch is different.
(3) Colored by E. Gertrude Thomson.
(4)Alice for Little Ones, Rosmen, 2013, and AW and LG,
Labyrinth, 2019.
(5) Detskaia Literatura, 1983, and Egmont, 2005.
(6) First published in black and white in Пионер (Pioneer) magazine
1971–72, later issued as a separate book (Labyrinth, 2012), then fully colored
(Labyrinth, 2020; Szkeo 2023).
(7) Christina and Olga, 1993, and Omega, 2007. His Looking-Glass
illustrations were published in Pioneer magazine nos. 1–4, 1992 but
never collected into book form.
(8) His Wonderland was published by Reed in 1982. He also
illustrated a children’s book, Nadine Amadio’s The New Adventures of Alice
in Rainforest Land (Watermark, 1988), and the National Gallery of Victoria
(NSW, Australia) published an exhibition catalogue of his paintings, Charles
Blackman: Alice in Wonderland, in 2006.
Millicent
Sowerby was the earliest artist to re-illustrate Wonderland, infusing Carroll’s
world with a delicate, dreamlike sensibility. Hers was the first British
edition after the original copyright expired; published by Chatto & Windus
in 1907, it featured twelve color plates and several black-and-white
illustrations. New visual elements were introduced that were not in the Tenniel
version, including an opening scene of Alice beside her sister, an illustration
of her peering into the rabbit hole, and a redesigned Hatter’s hat. In 1913,
Sowerby revisited Alice in a new edition published by Henry Frowde/Hodder & Stoughton. (ater reissued by Oxford University Press in 1926 and 1936.)
All the illustrations
were completely reimagined. Alice and the White Rabbit underwent notable
redesigns, including changes to Alice’s hair and clothing and adjustments to
the White Rabbit’s costume. The Mad Tea Party scene, for instance, originally
depicted Alice peeking at the table, while in the later edition she was already
seated. Sowerby’s Alice evolves from ethereal delicacy to a more immersive presence,
reflecting a deepening artistic interpretation and a shifting relationship with
Wonderland.
Comment: Reillustrating is not
mere repetition—it is an act of subtle or bold transformation. Sowerby’s Alice evolves from
ethereal delicacy to a more immersive presence, reflecting a deepening artistic
interpretation and a shifting relationship with Wonderland.
Harry Rountree
Harry Rountree, 1908.
Harry Rountree, 1928.
New
Zealand–born, London-dwelling Harry Rountree illustrated Wonderland in three distinct phases.
The first one, published by Thomas Nelson in 1908, featured 92 color
illustrations, including twelve full-page ones. In 1925, Thomas Nelson adapted
some of these illustrations into black-and-white line drawings for an edition
that combined Alice with Bruno’s Revenge, altering or
omitting certain details. Finally, in 1928, William Collins commissioned
Rountree to create an entirely new illustrated edition that combined Wonderland
and Looking-Glass, featuring eight new color plates and numerous black-and-white
drawings. The later edition reflects a shift in Rountree’s artistic approach,
moving beyond his earlier art nouveau style toward a more modern technique. The
meticulous linework, combined with the vibrant impact of color plates, enhances
both the whimsy and darker elements of the story. This evolution reveals not
only Rountree’s refined craftsmanship but also his engagement with the graphic
trends of the late 1920s.
[To dive
deeper, see “The Rountree Illustrations,” KL 96:34.] link
Comment: Reillustrating is a
dialogue between technique and time—Rountree’s Wonderland transforms from rich
Art Nouveau ornamentation into a more dynamic interplay of movement and
composition, mirroring the shifting artistic currents of his era.
Rene Cloke
Rene Cloke, 1934.
Rene Cloke, 1965.
Rene Cloke, 1990.
British
illustrator Rene Cloke was known for her delicate depictions of fairy
tales and children’s literature, often featuring fairies, elves, and
anthropomorphic animals. In all, Cloke illustrated four versions of Wonderland and one of Looking-Glass. Her first venture
into Alice came
in 1934, when she contributed six illustrations to an anthology. In 1943, she
produced a complete set of illustrations for an edition published by P. R.
Gawthorn. She revisited Alice in 1965 and again in 1990. Her Looking-Glass was published in 1951 and later reprinted in various formats.
Cloke’s 1943
edition stands out for its more than 80 illustrations, many in color, employing
a distinctive three-tone scheme. Cloke’s Alice is expressive and youthful, surrounded by rounded, charming
characters rendered in vibrant colors and fluid lines.
The 1965
edition introduced an adapted text, allowing for greater interaction between
words and images, which play across the page in a dynamic way. Her 1990
adaptation further developed this approach, creating a more inventive visual
rhythm. They found their way into Award Publications’ Little Treasury of Alice in Wonderland, a box set of six tiny books (3½ by 3½ inches) with sturdy pages
and colorful covers, introducing young readers to Alice’s adventures in a playful way. Cloke’s Alices, spanning five decades, shift from fairy-tale nostalgia to a more
fluid and interactive storytelling, embracing movement and transformation.
Comment: Reillustrating can be
a dialogue with one’s own artistic evolution—Cloke’s Alice, spanning five
decades, shifts from fairy-tale nostalgia to a more fluid and interactive
storytelling, embracing movement and transformation at each return to
Wonderland.
Olga
Siemaszko reimagined Wonderland across
multiple editions and design projects, each marking a distinct phase in her
artistic evolution. Her 1955 edition (Nasza Księgarnia, 1955)
created under the constraints of socialist realism, combined ink and gouache,
blending nineteenth-century influences—evoking Beatrix Potter and Kate
Greenaway—with Polish folk traditions. Siemaszko infused Wonderland with
elements of Polish identity: the White Rabbit and the Hatter resemble Sarmatian
nobles—early modern Polish aristocrats in oriental-style clothing—while Alice’s
dress bridges Tenniel’s aesthetic with the children’s fashion of the 1950s and
1960s. Wonderland itself takes the form of a meadow filled with oversized
flowers, subtly linking the fantastical setting to Polish cultural motifs.
In 1969,
following Poland’s political thaw, Siemaszko embraced a more experimental and
modernist approach.(Nasza Księgarnia, 1969.)
This edition introduced 22 pastel-toned full-page illustrations, framed within
structured compositions inspired by medieval illuminations and Persian
manuscripts. Alice, now resembling a Renaissance doll, appears less
prominently, while other characters don eighteenth-century aristocratic attire,
adding sophistication to the visual narrative. Her new art embraced Cubist
influences, with delicate contours, layered forms, and a pastel palette of
yellow, ochre, pink, purple, and blue. The use of tempera or gouache on primed
canvas lent a textured, painterly quality to the illustrations.
Siemaszko’s exploration
of Alice extended beyond books: in 1964, she illustrated a series of
postcards depicting Alice as a fairy-princess in a softly watercolored
Wonderland. In 1975, she revisited the 1969 aesthetic for a vinyl record cover,
enhancing it with richer colors and intricate details.
Comment: Reillustrating can be
a reflection of historical and political transformation. Her multiple
reinterpretations of Alice demonstrate how reillustrating a classic allows
artists to revisit its themes through shifting cultural and artistic lenses.
Romano“Sergio” Rizzato
Romano “Sergio”Rizzato, 1973.
Romano “Sergio” Rizzato, 2023.
Romano “Sergio” Rizzato’sillustrations
demonstrate a profound transformation between his editions, a half-century
apart (e Avventure di Alice [AW & LG],
Accademia, 1973; Алиса в стране чудес, Eksmo, 2023) Unlike
his 1973 edition, shaped by the conventions of 1970s children’s books, the 2023
version is visually expansive, featuring more illustrations, including
black-and-white works alongside full-color plates. This shift towards personal
artistic exploration transforms the reading experience: While the earlier
edition offered isolated moments, the newer one allows Wonderland to unfold
with greater fluidity.
One of the
most striking changes is in the use of color. The earlier edition, limited by
traditional printing techniques, relied on bright, self-contained illustrations
designed to captivate young readers. In contrast, the 2023 edition adopts a
more subdued, contextually integrated palette, turning Alice’s journey into a
more immersive and atmospheric experience. In Alice’s encounter with the
pigeon, for instance, the 1973 version places her against a simple blackberry
tree, while the 2023 reimagining situates her in a lush fairy-tale forest
filled with intricate flora. The pigeon, once stylized, now appears more
naturalistic, and Alice shifts from a posed cheerfulness to a joyful, fluid
engagement with Wonderland, looking toward the reader as a co-dreamer.
Meanwhile, other creatures have become more exaggerated, reinforcing the
contrast between Alice’s naturalistic depiction and Wonderland’s whimsical
distortions.
This
evolution in Rizzato’s work changes how the story is perceived. The earlier
edition presented Alice’s adventures as playful episodes, while the later
version suggests a more introspective, layered interpretation. The contrast
between Alice and the illogical world intensifies, while shifting perspectives
invite the viewer to step inside the narrative, heightening the sense of
immersion. This dynamic encourages a psychological reading, emphasizing Alice’s
journey as one of transformation rather than mere whimsy.
Comment: Reillustrating can be
an act of deepening perspective—Rizzato’s final Alice moves from
playful whimsy to a richly layered, introspective journey, embracing fluidity.
Kuniyoshi Kaneko
Kuniyoshi Kaneko, 1974.
Kuniyoshi Kaneko, 1994.
The renowned
Japanese artist Kuniyoshi Kaneko (金子國義) explored
sensuality, mystery, and fantasy in his Wonderland illustrations, blending fin-de-siècle aesthetics, symbolism, surrealism, and Japanese fetishism. Though
Kaneko was often associated with erotic art, his Alice editions remain suitable for children.
Kaneko’s 1974
Alice merges
innocence and enigma, portraying the heroine with a Lolita-esque, porcelain-doll
fragility. His work fluctuates between subtlety and estrangement, embedding
dreamlike elements into an atmosphere of quiet tension. Kaneko’s style became
distinctly his own around 1994, reaching full maturity by 2000.
Kaneko
returned to Alice
throughout his career, treating her as an evolving archetype rather than a
fixed character. His female figures often echo Alice, suspended between innocence and desire, playfulness and
melancholy. This interplay of elegance and estrangement makes Alice an enduring motif in his
surreal, delicately subversive world.
[To dive
deeper, please read his “Illustrator Spotlight” in KL 111.]
Comment: Reillustration can be
a plunge into mystery—Kaneko’s Alice oscillates between refinement and sensuality,
revealing new dimensions with each return.
Gennady Kalinovskii
Gennady Kalinovskii, 1974
Gennady Kalinovskii, 1987
The
illustrations of Gennady Kalinovskii (Геннадий Владимирович Калиновский)
are among the most striking Russian interpretations of Carroll’s work. First
published by Detskaya Literatura in Moscow in 1975, his black-and-white
illustrations feature intricate detail, expressive cross-hatching, and a
feverish sense of movement, heightening Wonderland’s surreal and disorienting
atmosphere. Elongated figures and shifting shapes verge on the grotesque,
reinforcing the dreamlike quality of Alice’s journey.
Kalinovskii
masterfully contrasts order and chaos: the restrained riverbank represents
rationality, while Wonderland erupts into exaggerated forms and fluid
distortions. Between his 1975 and 1987 editions (Novosibirsk, 1987). his
style evolved dramatically. The earlier version, dense with ink and
cross-hatching, creates a claustrophobic, turbulent dreamscape. In contrast,
the 1987 edition introduces color and negative space, replacing stark lines
with earthy tones and fluid compositions. Alice’s form stretches across open
visual fields, emphasizing the liminal space between waking and dreaming.
Kalinovskii
also experiments with layout, making characters dance across the page in
unpredictable gestures or appear in immersive full-page spreads. Though the
later version is lighter in tone, it retains the earlier edition’s distinctive
visual language.
Recently,
Moscow-based Studio 4+4 reprinted Kalinovskii’s work, reaffirming its place in
Russian Alice
iconography.
Comment: Reillustrating can be
an act of reinvention—Kalinovskii shifts from feverish monochrome intensity to
an expansive color dreamscape, mirroring Wonderland’s fluidity and
metamorphosis.
Russian
artist Andrey Gennadiev has illustrated two contrasting editions
of Wonderland, both grounded in Vladimir Nabokov’s bold Russian translation,
where Alice becomes Anya, and the story is reframed through a uniquely local
lens. The first, published in 1989 by Detskaya Literatura, is a small-format,
monochrome volume rendered in expressive shades of blue. Its stylized, symbolic
imagery captures the experimental aesthetic of the late Soviet era with poetic
subtlety.
In 2020, the
publishing house Andrea released a dramatically expanded bilingual edition
(Russian-English), large in format and filled with luminous full-color
illustrations. Graphic design plays a central role: each spread is carefully
composed, with richly illustrated frames surrounding the text and guiding the
reader through a world in constant metamorphosis. These decorative borders
immerse the reader. Gennadiev transforms each page into a vivid dreamscape,
blending Carroll’s surrealism with Nabokov’s idiosyncratic language and his own
painterly exuberance.
The 1989
edition feels introspective and quietly profound, shaped by its historical
moment, while the 2020 version radiates freedom, enchantment, and chromatic
delight. Yet in both, Gennadiev turns Alice into a living painting—at times
melancholic, at times feverish—revealing singular facets of a classic that
never ceases to transform.
Comment: To reillustrate Alice is to alter the gaze—through shifts in color, framing, and design, the same figures step into a different mood, revealing that Wonderland is not only what is shown, but how it is seen.
Giovanni
Robustelli
Giovanni
Robustelli, 2012
Giovanni
Robustelli, 2018
Giovanni
Robustelli,a Sicilian artist known as the
“pen genius,” works with a wide range of techniques—especially ballpoint pen.
His large-scale drawings are created without preparatory sketches, allowing the
stroke to flow freely, almost like unconscious writing. His art is marked by a
rhythmic energy, where each line creates a tactile texture, and every element
blends into the next, forming an organic, hybridized whole. In addition to
traditional exhibitions, his works come to life in live performances, in
collaboration with musicians, where sound and image intertwine, intensifying
the sensory experience. Robustelli’s relationship with the world of Alice in
Wonderland began in 2010, with a series of six illustrations published in a
limited edition by Edizioni Papel.
In 2018, the
same publisher released a special Italian edition of Alice, combining
two series of illustrations created ten years apart for a Milanese gallery. The
publication contrasts two distinct styles: on one side, “Alice . . . e i Suoi
Amici” (Alice . . . and Her Friends, 2012), which includes watercolors and pen
drawings where Alice seems to dissolve into the landscape—her form blending
with cards, forests, and fantastic creatures in an experience of metamorphosis
and hybridization. On the other side, “Meraviglie nel Paese di Alice” (Wonders
in Alice’s Land, 2018) offers pen drawings on cardboard, where rhythmic,
expressive lines intensify the strangeness and symbolic depth of the work. In
this second series, the figures become more abstract, representing the
dreamlike fluidity and constant transformation of Alice’s world. In
Robustelli’s hands, Alice is a dream in perpetual transformation—a cycle of
dissolution, invention, and rebirth.
Comment: To reillustrate Alice is to let the line wander through imagination and thought—each stroke tracing the fluid edges of dreams, where figures dissolve and reassemble in a rhythm of perpetual transformation.
Gavin
O’Keefe
Gavin
O’Keefe, 2009
Gavin
O’Keefe, 2011
Gavin
O’Keefe’s work on Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland has evolved through three
distinct phases, each reimagining Carroll’s classic. His journey began in the
mid-1980s, illustrating Alice from the heart before securing a publisher.
His first
edition, The GO Alice
(Carroll Foundation, 1990), is an intricate pen-and-ink work infused with
historical and intertextual, Celtic, and surreal influences, creating a world
of dark humor and mystery. After completely re-illustrating Wonderland
and illustrating Looking-Glass, he combined both into The
Alice Books(Ramble House, 2010)
O’Keefe’s
early Alice
illustrations reflect his love for Gothic literature—H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar
Allan Poe—and surrealism, leaning into dark, atmospheric horror, while the later
edition adopts more open compositions, shifting toward a streamlined,
three-dimensional aesthetic. He is currently developing a third, full-color
edition that enhances emotional expressiveness and visual complexity. This new Alice will incorporate more
references than ever, weaving in Cold War–era science, politics, and pop
culture alongside sixteenth- and nineteenth-century influences—reinforcing
O’Keefe’s belief that Wonderland transcends anachronisms, existing in multiple dimensions of time.
[To dive
deeper, please read his Illustrator Spotlight in KL 113 and Arnold
Hirshon’s article on him in Alice in a World of Wonderlands: The
English-Language Editions (ATBOSH, 2023, pp. 402–408).]
Comment: To reillustrate Alice is to navigate a labyrinth of time and imagination—where Gothic shadows, surreal echoes, and cultural fragments converge in ever-shifting forms. Wonderland, in O’Keefe’s hands, becomes a portal through which thought, memory, and mystery dream together.
Dmitry Trubin
Dmitry Trubin, 2002
Dmitry Trubin, 2017
According to
Russian artist Dmitry Trubin, his first reading of Alice took
place in 1991, when the Soviet publishing house Molodaya Gvardiya invited him
to illustrate the book. Although the illustrations were completed that same
year, the economic crisis of 1992 halted production. The book was eventually
published in 2002 as a tête-bêche (reversible) edition: Wonderland on
one side and Looking-Glass on the other. Trubin described this early
version as unusually luminous and refined, with a cool, ethereal color palette
and a distinctly stylized atmosphere. He sought to create a personal vision of Alice,
one that would stand apart from the beloved interpretations by Kalinovski,
Vashchenko, Miturich, and many others. His Alice took shape with wide blue
eyes, straight hair, and delicate hand gestures—features that, years later,
would echo in the face of his daughter Katya, born three years after the
illustrations were finished.
In 2017,
Trubin returned to both Alice books, creating a new bilingual Russian
edition through his own press, Niburt. This second version explores spatial
experimentation more boldly, aligning with Carroll’s layered logic and playful
impossibilities. Working in large-format watercolor, with areas of collage and
even a photograph of his daughter subtly integrated, Trubin constructs a visual
narrative full of geometric shifts and gentle disruptions. Wonderland is
rendered with flat, decorative planes that echo the motif of playing cards,
while Looking-Glass adopts a more austere, monochromatic
treatment—evoking the rigidity of chess. The space in these images often
appears serene at first glance, but is subtly undermined by distortions and
near-invisible shifts that, once noticed, unravel the internal logic of the
scene. “It’s a game,” Trubin said, “a game that is both readable and hidden.”
The result is a deeply personal and visually compelling Alice, where the
uncanny becomes the viewer’s entry point, and the familiar world is turned,
ever so slightly, askew.
Comment: To reillustrate Alice is to play with perception—bending space with quiet precision, layering memory, geometry, and emotion until the familiar tilts into the uncanny. In Trubin’s vision, Wonderland becomes a map of hidden games, where what seems still is already shifting.
Tatiana
Ianovskaia
Tatiana
Ianovskaia, 2005.
Tatiana
Ianovskaia, 2008.
Tatiana
Ianovskaia’s (Татьяна Юрьевна Яновская) journey
with Alice began
in 1967, when, at age seven, she discovered a Soviet edition that captivated
her with its humor and illustrations. In the rigid USSR, Alice offered an escape into
imagination. At eighteen, she began illustrating the story, drawing inspiration
from her surroundings—cramped living conditions (mirroring Alice in the
Rabbit’s house) in a remote Georgian village providing solitude for artistic
exploration. In 1998, her work was exhibited in post-Soviet Russia, marking a
pivotal moment before her immigration to Canada, where Alice became a bridge between her
past and her new reality.
Her first
illustrated Alice was
published in Russia (Uzorochie, 2003)
followed by editions under Tania Press in Toronto (2005, 2008). She later illustrated Through the Looking-Glass (2011)
and The Hunting of the Snark (2012), alongside Alice-themed playing cards and The
Mad Gardener’s Song.
Her style
blends folk art with stained-glass aesthetics, influenced by Niko Pirosmani’s
bold colors and dreamlike simplicity. Her compositions merge the ordinary and
the fantastical, evoking nostalgia and displacement. Through symbolic imagery,
she captures Carroll’s wordplay and paradoxes, reinventing familiar episodes
with fresh visual angles. Notably, she depicts Time—Cronos—arguing with the Mad
Hatter, a scene rarely illustrated.
Ianovskaia’s Alice, shaped by exile and
transformation, mirrors her own evolving journey.
[To dive
deeper, read her interview in KL 96.]
Comment: To reillustrate Alice is to chart an inner country—where myth and history blur, and the everyday twists into uncanny visions. Ianovskaia's Wonderland thrives on estrangement, turning dislocation into discovery and memory into nonsense and paradox.
Júlia
Sardà
Júlia
Sardà, 2013.
Júlia
Sardà, 2019.
Júlia
Sardà, an illustrator from Barcelona, has created
two richly imagined editions, each offering a distinct visual and emotional
tone. The first, Alice au pays des merveilles, (Fleurus, 2013) features
a light-haired Alice with exaggerated proportions, shifting between “cute” and
“spooky.” She wears a faded blue dress, adding to the eerie and melancholic
atmosphere. The compositions are bold and angular, with theatrical use of space
and dark, moody tones that evoke a dreamlike, almost nightmarish quality. This
Alice seems frightened and disoriented, caught in a Wonderland that feels both
magical and unsettling.
In contrast,
the second edition, in English (Two Hoots, 2019) presents a dark-haired Alice inspired by Miss Liddell. She wears a structured
white dress, which, combined with her more composed expression, gives her a
sense of poise and resolve. The illustrations are no less elaborate, rich in
layered composition, spatial invention, and intricate detail. As in the first
edition, the mood is dreamlike, but now tinged with wonder and quiet intensity
rather than fear. This version’s Alice appears more determined, moving through
surreal landscapes with a calm sense of curiosity. Both editions reflect
Sardà’s mastery of atmosphere and visual storytelling, each transforming the
classic tale into a fully immersive, emotionally charged world. (Sardà also illustrated Kathleen Krull’s One Fun Day with Lewis
Carroll (KL 100:61)
Re-illustration
is not mere repetition, it is a dialogue with the past and a portal to new
possibilities. What makes Alice inexhaustible is her mutability—constantly
growing, shrinking, transforming, and questioning. Carroll’s text, rich in
symbolism, paradox, and nonsense, resists a single interpretation. Like
Wonderland itself, Alice defies fixed logic, inviting artists into a creative
game of mirroring, distortion, and reinvention.
Commen: To reillustrate Alice is to reflect her shifting stance—moving from bewildered melancholy to poised confrontation. Sardà’s Wonderland is a theatre of layered moods, where each version of Alice rewrites the script: first as a haunted dreamer, then as a lucid navigator of the strange.
George Walker
In another example of evolving media, engraver George Walker produced stunning woodcuts for the fine-press Cheshire Cat editions of Wonderland (1988) and Looking-Glass (1998) (see KL 55:7). His first Alice,
released in 1988, marked the debut of the Cheshire Cat Press and
brought an eccentric and highly textured wood-engraved vision to
Carroll’s classic, far removed from Victorian restraint. In 2024, Walker and Andy Malcolm returned to the tale once again, this time embracing AI-generated
imagery to reinterpret Alice for a new era.Adriana Peliano will comment on the AI-generated edition in the same issue of the Knight Letter.
Comment: To reillustrate Alice is to reinvent the medium itself—from the tactile precision of wood engraving to the generative logic of AI. Walker’s journey reveals that Wonderland is not bound by technique, but thrives in the tension between craft and innovation, tradition and transformation.
I myself have
illustrated Wonderland four times and Looking-Glass three times,
each through a different prism, diving into both the collective and personal
unconscious. My first exploration, Alicinações (“Alicinations,”
1996–1998), transformed Carroll’s narrative into a tapestry of visual puns and
paradoxes. Using mixed media, collages, assemblages, and vintage photographs, I
created a hybrid, metamorphic Wonderland where Alice’s identity constantly
dissolves and reconfigures. This project, my BA thesis, was presented at
Carroll’s centenary celebration at Christ Church, Oxford (1998).
For my second
shot, the 150th-Anniversary Celebration Edition of Alice (Zahar, 2015). I
delved into the interplay of dreams and mathematics, merging Alice with the
surrealism of Bosch, Dalí, and Magritte, as well as the impossible geometries
of Escher and Reutersvärd. Constructed by dismantling and recombining the
colored illustrations of The Nursery “Alice,” these collages wove
tradition and reinvention into a single visual experience.
My third
journey, Alice Quebra-Cabeça (“Alice Puzzle”), (LCSBrazil, 2022) became a
Tangram-inspired picture book, created in collaboration with my five-year-old
nephew. Using photographs of wooden, tinted puzzle pieces, we built an
interactive narrative where characters and settings could be endlessly
reassembled, reaffirming Wonderland as a realm of games and discovery.
In my latest
dive, AI-CE (LCSBrazil, 2024) I reimagined my approach through artificial intelligence, blending
illustrations, animations, and generative processes. This hybrid method mirrors
Alice’s symbolic initiation into shifting, illogical landscapes. AI-CE
Looking-Glass further explored the themes of chance and metamorphosis,
fusing art and technology in an ever-evolving process.
Comment:
To reillustrate Alice is to embrace
metamorphosis—each journey reshapes Wonderland through new mediums, from
collage to AI, dissolving and reconfiguring its endless possibilities.
EXTRA:
The Art of alicescopic
Reimagination
Alice’s enduring
presence in art comes from her infinite capacity for reinvention. Each
generation of illustrators reinterprets Wonderland, responding to artistic
movements, cultural shifts, and personal visions. While most, but not all, early
artists followed Tenniel’s canon, contemporary illustrators embrace
experimental approaches, expanding Alice’s visual language through digital
tools, mixed media, and AI. Reillustration is not mere repetition—it is a
dialogue with the past and a portal to new possibilities.
What makes Alice
inexhaustible is her mutability—constantly growing, shrinking, transforming,
and questioning. Carroll’s text, rich in symbolism, paradox, and nonsense,
resists singular interpretation. Like Wonderland itself, Alice defies fixed
logic, inviting artists into a creative game of mirroring, distortion, and
reinvention. No longer just a Victorian girl, she becomes a living Alicescope, shifting
and reshaping with each artistic lens, escaping not only the boundaries of the
page but also those of time and media. Like a reflection in a thousand mirrors,
every Alice emerges distinct, shaped by the gaze of the viewer and the moment
in which she is met.
"What are
you?" said the Pigeon. "I can see you are trying to invent
something!" Alice sets out
anew, only to reinvent herself once again. The Alice books form an
ever-expanding web of creative possibilities, where artists choose their own
paths—much like the Cheshire Cat’s riddle. Each image opens a new door, forming
a labyrinth of interpretations, an Alicescope of reflections where every vision sparks another.
Between ink,
brushstrokes, pixels, algorithms, and endless iterations, Alice slips past the enigmagic clock,
embodying not just her time but imagination itself—stretching, shrinking,
twisting, and glitching the impossible into the now. She is always becoming, as
she tells the Caterpillar, and perhaps that is where the wonder lies. As
Alberto Manguel once said, Alice is an infinite book—one that continues to
unfold beyond its pages.
The author
wishes to thank Natalia Bragaru, Mark Burstein, Ilaria Cremaschini, Arnold
Hirshon, Tania Ianovskaia, Yvonne Kacy, Maxim Mitrofanov, Yoshiyuki Momma,
Gavin O’Keefe, and Danuta Radomska, who have written, exchanged, and/or sent me
valuable material. Thanks also to Donnel Stern for providing the spark to write
this article.
References
Hirshon,Arnold, The Many Faces of Wonderland: An Exhibition Guide and
Annotations, Kelvin Smith Library Special
Collections & Archives, 2023.
Lindseth,
Jon, and Alan Tannenbaum (eds.), Alice in a World of
Wonderlands: The Translations of Lewis Carroll’s Masterpiece, Oak Knoll Press, 2015.
Rybicka-Tomala,
Karolina, “Translating
Tenniel: Discovering the Traces of Tenniel’s Wonderland in Olga Siemaszko’s
Vision of Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland,” in Kérchy,
Anna and Björn Sundmark (eds.), Translating
and Transmediating Children’s Literature, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.
Ovenden,
Graham, and John Davis,The Illustrators of Alice in Wonderland and Through the
Looking-Glass, St. Martin’s Press, 1972.
Vaizey,
Marina, Michèle Noret, and Jan Švankmajer, Illustrating Alice: An International Selection of Illustrated
Editions of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the
Looking-Glass, Artist’s
Choice Editions, 2013.
